Cybercrimes in romantic relationships

Technological control and the expansion of criminal law protection

Abstract

This article aims to discuss virtual crimes in affective relationships, considering how contemporary forms of control operate within intimate and domestic spaces, especially through the mediation of digital technologies. Drawing on the thoughts of Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, and Zygmunt Bauman, it analyzes how power infiltrates affective bonds through surveillance, relational fluidity, and the algorithmic management of emotions, influencing individual and relational behavior, which in turn impacts the domestic environment and contributes to the perpetration of crimes against women in family and domestic contexts. Therefore, the article also proposes a critical analysis of digital gender-based violence and the challenges faced by criminal law in protecting the right to privacy and in combating domestic violence, without resorting to an unnecessary expansion of penal intervention.